eer, a sport of which, boy
as he was, he was passionately fond. In joyous spirits, and attended by
a gallant train, he set out, calling for and receiving the ready
sympathy of his sister, who rejoiced as himself in his emancipation from
restraint, which either was, or seemed to be, adverse to the usual
treatment of noble youths.

Somewhat sooner than Isabella anticipated, they returned. Earl Duncan,
with a wilfulness which already characterized him, weary of the extreme
watchfulness of his attendants, who, in their anxiety to keep him from
danger, checked and interfered with his boyish wish to signalize himself
by some daring deed of agility and skill, at length separated himself,
except from one or two as wilful, and but little older than himself. The
young lord possessed all the daring of his race, but skill and foresight
he needed greatly, and dearly would he have paid for his rashness. A
young and fiery bull had chanced to cross his path, and disregarding the
entreaties of his followers, he taunted them with cowardice, and goaded
the furious animal to the encounter; too late he discovered that he had
neither skill nor strength for the combat he had provoked, and had it
not been for the strenuous exertions of a stranger youth, who diverted
aside the fury of the beast, he must have fallen a victim to his
thoughtless daring. Curiously, and almost enviously, he watched the
combat between the stranger and the bull, nor did any emotion of
gratitude rise in the boy's breast to soften the bitterness with which
he regarded the victory of the former, which the reproaches of his
retainers, who at that instant came up, and their condemnation of his
folly, did not tend to diminish; and almost sullenly he passed to the
rear, on their return, leaving Sir Malise Duff to make the
acknowledgments, which should have come from him, and courteously invite
the young stranger to accompany them home, an invitation which, somewhat
to the discomposure of Earl Duncan, was accepted.

If the stranger had experienced any emotion of anger from the boy's
slight of his services, the gratitude of the Lady Isabella would have
banished it on the instant, and amply repaid them; with cheeks glowing,
eyes glistening, and a voice quivering with suppressed emotion, she had
spoken her brief yet eloquent thanks; and had he needed further proof,
the embrace she lavished on her young brother, as reluctantly, and after
a long interval, he entered the hall, sai